


Prima Facie

by Draco_sollicitus



Series: Damerey Tumblr Collection [4]
Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo is NOT Nice in this, F/M, Junior Attorney Rey, Misunderstandings, Senior Attorney Ben, Senior Attorney Poe, drunk poe, lawyer AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 05:21:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14909123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_sollicitus/pseuds/Draco_sollicitus
Summary: Poe Dameron is tired of watching Rey Niima get hurt by Ben Solo; even before he was in love with her, he knew she deserved the entire galaxy, and he couldn't understand why she'd go for a guy who didn't want the same things she did.He'd thought she had left things with the brooding attorney in the past, but when she shows up to their weekly drinks talking about inter-office dating, he assumes she means she wants to get back together with Ben.And, well, you know what happens when you "assume."





	Prima Facie

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the tumblr quote prompt: "How many times has he told you he doesn't love you?"

Rey Niima wasn’t at Friday drinks.

It was the first thing Poe noticed when he walked into The Bar - and honestly, screw lawyers, because the place is literally called The Bar - and he hasn’t been able to stop looking over at the door for the last hour and a half.

The whole intensely-pining-over-the-first-year-associate thing may have had something to do with the empty glasses cluttered in front of him. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She’d been skittish around the office for weeks now; she’d missed their long-standing coffee appointment the last four days (okay, so they chatted at the coffee cart in front of his office every weekday at 7:45 a.m., like clockwork for six and a half months now, and okay, Poe might have rearranged his whole schedule permanently when he bumped into her by accident that one time and hoped for a repeat). Rey Niima was avoiding almost everyone in the office, except for Rose Tico, one of the paralegals, and Finn Trooper, a friendly second-year associate (and okay, okay, Poe was definitely not jealous of Finn because Finn was dating Rose, and they’d been together since undergrad, and  _God,_ why does he know so much about junior attorneys and their lives? When did that become a thing he cared about?).

The bell over the door chimed, stirring Poe from his previous position of scowling at the mahogany of the bar, and he looked up expectantly. The cold early March air blew into the bar, bringing in Benjamin Solo with it. Great. Exactly who Poe wanted to see.

The guy was designed to annoy Poe. Tall, handsome, brilliant, and the son of one of the firm’s partners and a verified war hero - and, of course, he and Poe regrettably had very similar tastes in women. Specifically, one woman. A woman who had been a summer associate at Organa, Erso & Holdo three years ago, and was now their most successful junior attorney. A woman who had a torrid affair with Benjamin Solo, an affair Poe only knew about because he’d been sitting in the room when Organa called them into her office to scold her son for not disclosing the relationship to HR, to which Ben coolly responded, “What relationship?”

Poe would never forget the way Rey’s face fell; he would never forget finding her crying in her second summer as an intern at the office either, having been hurt by Ben again. And then Poe had been there for her the summer after she graduated law school, when Ben slept with another woman five hours after he left Rey's apartment. Poe would never forget watching her piece herself back together again, sometimes stumbling or slipping - sometimes rushing to the bathroom to cry (and he’d loiter outside the bathrooms on those occasions, loudly shooting the shit with anyone passing by, so she would know it wasn’t safe to come out yet with her puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks).

After her third month on the job officially, they began to meet for a drink or two at this very same bar while they groused about their weeks. He admired her for how easily she steered the conversation away from her heartbreak in the beginning: for the first few months, she’d just shit on the situation good-naturedly, but after a while, she stopped mentioning it altogether. When Ben entered into an HR-approved relationship with Jess Pava, Rey had smiled genuinely and shrugged when Poe asked her worriedly if she was alright. 

That had been four months ago, and the word near the water coolers was that Jess had dumped Ben a few weeks ago. God, he hoped that wasn’t why Rey had been acting so weird. God, he hoped this next shot of whiskey could make that probability a little less daunting. 

He was fairly drunk when the bell chimed again, and he didn’t look up that time. A low, musical voice sounded over his left shoulder. “This seat taken?” He turned, half-smiling, to see Rey Niima standing there with a worried expression, twisting her hair behind her ear, that one piece that always stubbornly fell out of whatever style she attempted (God, Poe hoped she had no idea that he’d written poetry about that piece of hair). 

“No ma’am,” he answered, praying his words weren’t slurred, not really caring if they were. “It’s all yours. Was worried you weren’t gonna show.”

“And miss Drinks with Dameron? I don’t think so.” She hopped up on the stool and signaled to the bartender. “Sorry I was so late, I got caught up with something.” 

Ben Solo had walked in precisely eight minutes before she did. Poe prayed to every god he could think of that Ben Solo wasn’t ‘something.’

“Don’t worry, ‘sokay.” Poe mumbled into his glass. 

“I’ll just have a water, thanks.” He heard Rey order, and he rested his head on the bar to look at her. Even in the shitty bar lights, she was the most resplendent, brilliantly perfect person he’d ever seen. How did people get that pretty? How did they get that kind? That sweet? 

“You drunk?” She asked, an odd note of cheer in her voice. Right. Rey didn’t like drunk people. Of course she didn’t with her childhood. God, he was an asshole. 

“Not that drunk,” he muttered, trying to smile at her. “Mostly tired.” And that was actually true. Poe could easily walk home, could probably still argue well enough in court (he wasn't Leia's best attorney for nothing), but he was a little past buzzed. Mostly his exhaustion was bleeding through his pores, the exhaustion from having to hold back his declaration of love to the Aphrodite who just took a seat next to him.  _Calm down, Dameron. Be cool. You were cool once._

“Okay.” Rey nodded and then took the glass of water with a quiet thanks from the bartender. “Okay. So. Um. I need to talk to you about something.”

“Mmm.” Poe hummed, the picture of nonchalance. He could see Ben Solo looming in the back of the bar, in the mirror behind the bottles of vodka. 

“I know it might sound…odd, but I was thinking, you know, probably Post-Valentine’s Day malaise or whatever,” Rey cleared her throat, loudly. “But I was thinking about dating, and I was wondering about your thoughts on dating in the office -”

“Oh no,” Poe sighed heavily, picked up his last glass, and examined its emptiness glumly. 

“No?” Rey asked quietly. He looked over at her, but she was too fuzzy, and his head was too loud for him to really look. She seemed smaller than she did a second ago, but maybe that was just the way she was sitting. 

“No, no, no, not this again-” Poe set his glass down with another dramatic sigh. “Look, Sunshine, if this is about who I think it is -”

“You know him. He’s older than I am,” Rey said nonchalantly. Her finger tripped along the edge of her glass. “…and handsome, and a senior attorney, and we get along really -”

“I wouldn’t call that getting along,” Poe snapped. Rey shot him a look of - betrayal? That can’t be right. “Rey, the guy’s ripped you to shreds every time you’ve gone near him.” With his worst fear confirmed, Poe realized that the alcohol in his system was not going to let him get away with letting this slide. God. Oh well, regret’s for Saturday mornings. 

“Poe, I don’t think you know what you’re talking ab-”

“I don’t?” Poe raised his eyebrows at her. “I don’t, huh? Tell me, how many times has he told you he doesn’t love you? How many times do you need to hear it before it sinks in?”

“Poe.” She didn’t offer anything past his name, but it slipped out, and hovered in the smoky air between them. Poe slapped a fifty down on the table and slid it towards the bartender.

“If you wanna get with Solo again, be my guest. Pardon me for not wanting to sit here and watch you get your heart broken all over again. You deserve a guy who actually sees you, Rey. A guy who wants to treat you with respect, and who sees how fuckin’ amazing you are. Because you’re incredible, brighter than the fuckin’ Sun, but I will not and cannot watch you spiral into a Ben Solo Regret Cycle again. Because you’re too happy to go for the people who hurt you, Rey. You do this every time, it’s like you’re seeking out people who treat you like shit.”

Rey snorted angrily, and didn’t look up when Poe stood on shaky legs to walk away. “Guess you know better than I do, huh?” Her jaw was a straight, angry line, and Poe let out his breath when she finally looked at him. Her eyes blazed with fury, and even when she was about to breathe fire on him, Rey was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. “Poor little Rey Niima, wouldn’t know love if it stared her in the face.” 

“I don’t think you would.” They stared at each other then, Rey in anger, Poe in agony, and then he shook his head. “I’ll see you Monday.”

He stalked out the doors without another word.

***

Poe’s bad mood lasted all weekend, and when he stomped into the office on Monday morning at 7:30, he found it thankfully empty. Leia was off somewhere preparing for a big case, and Holdo was on vacation; Erso was at her daughter’s graduation. It was empty, and Ben Solo hadn’t shown up yet - Poe didn’t know what he would do if he saw his stupid, smug face, what he would do if the asshole so much as breathed a word about his weekend with that ‘cute little junior attorney’ - and Poe found himself dragging towards his usual coffee cart at 7:43. 

To his intense surprise, Rey was standing there. She looked exhausted and distant when he approached, her arms wrapped around her slender frame like she was trying to hold herself together, and any irritation Poe had at her lapse in judgment regarding Ben Solo vanished immediately, and regret for having yelled at her when she sought his opinion took its place. 

He stood behind her in line and cleared his throat. She shook herself out of whatever reverie she was in, and spared him a single glance over her shoulder. Her face arranged into something quite cool when she saw it was him.

“Dameron.”

“Hey, Sunshine,” Poe said weakly. “Sorry about Friday, I wasn’t-”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, already facing forward. She ordered quickly, grabbed her coffee, and nodded at him. He watched her walk away, her short heels clacking against the marble floor, her shoulders set like she was going off into battle. 

Poe forgot to order his coffee, he was so distracted by Rey’s reaction to him. He must have really pissed her off - it was time to think of methods of reconciliation. She liked flowers, and she liked muffins (chocolate chip, which she insisted were different from cupcakes, but Poe, with no taste for sweets, didn’t see how), and she liked Jane Austen. There had to be something there, something good he could do- 

He was so busy thinking, aimlessly drifting towards the cubicles of the junior attorneys, that he almost didn’t see Finn until he bumped right into him.

“Hey!” Finn said cheerfully. “You look like it’s a Monday. No offense.”

Poe laughed without humor. “I feel like it’s a Monday.”

“You had that good of a time then?” Poe looked at Finn in confusion, at the cheeky grin on his face. 

“I beg your pardon?” Poe asked, the dots not connecting. Finn’s face froze, and he looked awkward.

“Sorry!” Finn said hastily. “Sorry, sorry that was super inappropriate, I know it’s not my place, just - Rosie and I were so excited that Rey-Rey was finally going to do something about…well, you know.” He smiled again, a little less broad, but still genuine.

“I do?” Poe frowned. “What do I know?”

“C’mon man, you don’t need to hide it from me. Rey was psyching herself up for an hour before she went to get drinks with you on Friday. She had a whole speech planned to ask you out, even wrote it on flash cards. It was very cute.”

Poe stared into space over Finn’s shoulder, feeling very much like an eighteen-wheeler had just run him over. Finn kept talking.

“And you know, she’s been in love with you forever now, and Rosie and I kept telling her that you probably felt the same, anyone with eyes could see the chemistry you two have-”

“Excuse me,” Poe said weakly, pushing past Finn. “I need to-” Finn faded into the background as Poe moved through the office. It wasn’t quite 8:00 a.m., so it wasn’t quite officially business hours, so this had to be okay, right? 

“Rey,” Poe said once he had reached her desk. “Sunshine.”

“Not now, Dameron,” Rey sighed. “I have to get the files ready on the Ackbar case, Solo needs them in his office six hours ago, and you know how he gets when-”

“Rey.” Poe sat down on her desk and stared up at her. She looked back with exhausted acceptance. “Can I take you on a date?”

She blinked at him in surprise. “What?”

“Yeah. As it turns out, I’m really, really in love with you, and I’d like to do something about that before I crawl to the bottom of a bottle of Jameson’s and make an ass out of myself again.”

Rey didn’t move, didn’t say anything, and Poe waited anxiously for her to do either. “I’ll think about it,” she said after an agonizing pause.

“You will?” Poe said, eagerly. 

“I will. Fine. I thought about it. Yes, I’ll go.” Rey laughed, her nose crinkling adorably, and she swatted at his leg with the papers in her hand. “Now scoot, you’re sitting on my brief.” 

“Sorry.” Poe leapt up and smiled at her again, not able to stop it at this point. “Does Friday work?”

“I get drinks with my friend on Friday,” Rey said cheerfully, already flipping through a folder. “But he yelled at me the last time we met up, so I don’t feel that bad about canceling on him.”

“He sounds like an asshole.” Poe had a feeling he was going to skip all the way back to his office. “You should definitely cancel on him.” He grinned like an idiot at her until she shooed him away, still laughing.

(And he did skip all the way back to his office)

**Author's Note:**

> does this need a chapter two?!? where Poe gets to take Rey on a date? Or maybe even a Rey POV?


End file.
